Enter into Neth Space and you will find thoughts and reviews of books and other media that fit the general definition of speculative fiction. This includes the various genres and sub-genres of fantasy, science fiction, epic fantasy, high fantasy, hard sci-fi, soft sci-fi, new weird, magical realism, cyberpunk, urban fantasy, slipstream, horror, alternative history, SF noir, etc. Thoughts are my own, I'm certainly not a professional, just an avid reader avoiding his day job.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Another White-Washed Cover?

I’ll let you guys be the ultimate judge, but I think this yet another case of a white-washed cover – even if it’s more by omission than outright misrepresentation.

The main character, who is a man of color, has been turned into a complete silhouette in the final version. In my opinion this doesn’t add any artistic merit to the cover, especially since I prefer the cover that isn’t completely silhouetted out. And the silhouette doesn’t achieve some thematic representation of the book that I can see. Why do it? The only reason I can see is to hide the ethnicity of the main character.

I noticed that too, and posted both covers on my blog when I reviewed the first book. In that one, I couldn't tell from the un-silhouetted cover whether the model was a POC or not--I guessed white, but he's obviously the same model who's on the second book, who is definitely not white. I prefer the British covers anyway.

But yeah, this is totally whitewashing to me. They're obscuring the main character's race, and I don't think they did it by accident.

I can't tell ethnicity from the first cover. I'm not sure I can from the second, in fact (though with your post, it's easier to interpret as such). I presume it'd be easier to tell with covers in hand, in which case, yeah, it seems fishy.

On the other paw, I think the original (?) covers--the ones that aren't totally silhouetted--are better anyway. So they've possibly white-washed, and definitely made the covers blander. Bad all around, IMHO.

I will say that I personally don't like it when covers depict characters, because then it skews how I picture them in my head as I read, so in that sense I would prefer the silhouetted covers.

I can see your point though, and it seems strange that they'd change the covers like that. Which is completely unnecessary, I mean, the reader is gonna figure out those details about the main character anyway.

It could have been done for a purely aesthetic reason: the visible face could be seen as distracting when the rest of the body is in silhouette. I personally find the "new" version of Soho much more appealing than the first.

I don't know. I have a hard time believing that this has anything to do with race. I would guess that it had something to do with a contractual dispute with either the artist or the model, and it was just cheaper to change the cover as they did as opposed to redoing the entire thing.

It just has to be something simple like that. No way Del Rey pays someone to create a cover, and then all of a sudden is shocked to find out the there's a black guy on the cover, when the protagonist is black.

Granted if they did scrub it because of race, that's incredibly stupid, which is why I think it's something else.

Well, I understand your hesitancy, but unfortunately there is a pretty long record of publishers white-washing covers. So, while it is a stupid thing to do, it's something that publishers seem to do with some regularity.

Also, Anonymous, I've heard plenty of tales from folks in publishing about covers that were changed due to chain bookstore buyer pressure (e.g., "change X or we won't buy as many copies"). So, yes, it's very believable that they'd pay for artwork and then have it changed.

Of course, it's also possible the initial one wasn't really what they were after to begin with, and the artist messed up and had to revise. There're plenty of possibilities--we'll never know for sure, methinks.

Honestly, neither the real or silhouetted versions really ring true to the Peter described in the series. This one looks far more like a bouncer than a policeman originally destined for a desk job. Too big, strong and tough looking.

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I’m just a guy avoiding the responsibilities of my day job by blogging about the books I love. Far from being a true critic, I’m just a fan who has come to love sharing my thoughts on the books I read and other general happenings in the SFF world. The side bar has plenty of links to contact info, reviewing policy, and indexes of reviews and other posts in addition to numerous links of interest.